'I coulda had a V8!'

I drive a 4Runner, but I have a friend who drives Jeep SUVs, and she feels pretty much the same way. Since it's better to have it and not need it, I would go for the power.

HTH

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My 04 Ram has the 5.7 Hemi. Lots of torque. I have well over 120K on it and no maintinence done to the engine, I changed plugs and put a EGR valve in it at a little over 100 K. Sill Doesn't use a drop if oil. Hoping to get 175-200 K out of the truck, if I don't make it I doubt it will be because of the engine. I get about 16-18 MPG on the highway depending on how fast I am going (80 + really cuts the mileage) city is 14-15.

I would always go for a bigger engine over the smaller choice. The harder you work it the quicker it will wear out.

No experience with those but I have always gone for more power in my 4x4's, always the biggest V8 I could get in it and have never regretted it. You never know when you will really need it. I don't do "off-road" intentionally but have had to a few times and the available power was welcome. Oh, and I keep my 4x4's until the have at least 200k on them.

With the 3.8, admittedly it isn't a sports car on the highway, but I did get mine for offroad. With the 4.10 gears in the diffs, and the 4:1 transfer case, I am never short for power offroad. I don't do any serious rock crawling, but I do use my lockers. I find I break less stuff than my brethren who like to power through stuff instead of easing through. The Pentastar is a decent little powerplant, but it will not be near as peppy as the Hemi.

I remember when it came out, but I don't know if they have proven themselves to be good. GM and Ford had both come out with new V6's that were very good so Chrysler had to come out with their version. My wife has the GM 3.6L V6 in her GMC Acadia and so far it seems to be a good engine, they use the same engine in the Camaro, CTS, etc.

My wife bought a 1999 Grand Cherokee with the then new 4.7L V8. It was a good engine and provided plenty of power for the car, and we drove it in town, on the freeway, and a good amount of offroad in Colorado and Utah. The engine provided more than enough power for everything we did and if you pushed the car hard you would feel like you had a hotrod. That engine was rated at 235hp, the new Pentastar V6 is much more powerful than that at 290hp.

When we bought our GC the other available engine was their old inline 6, rated at 195hp. We went to Wyoming one time on vacation and got one of these for our rental vehicle. It ran fine but didn't have as much highway power as our Jeep, although it would do serious passing maneuvers if you really pushed it, and it got much better fuel mileage. Our V8 usually got 17-19mpg highway. We put 150k miles on it with no problems at all from the engine.

The stats for the current GC put the Pentastar at 290HP and the Hemi at 360HP, so there isn't a lot of difference but there is enough to be able to feel it. If I was buying one I would probably go for the Pentastar because I'm real sensitive to fuel mileage but if a person wanted more power they should go for the hemi.

Someone mentioned the 3.8L V6 used from 2007-2011. It was rated at about 200hp, barely more than the 4.0L inline 6.

I love that motor. The '05 was rated at 345 horse and was a ball to drive. For the '12, they snuck in another 45 ponies and it's that much more fun. I routinely got about 15 mpg for mixed driving in the '05. Actually nudged 20 mpg crusing at a steady 60 in the UP. Put about 140k on it with nary a problem. One mysterious ground failure--simple to fix once the shop found it and not what I'd call an "engine problem" but it absolutely killed driveability.

The '12 has the cylinder deactivation business and I can easily get 20 mpg out of it on the hiway. 10k on it with nothing to note.

I don't put an awful lot of thought in milage. A fella has to drive a lot or gas has to cost a lot more that it does before you save any significant money. Both engines will happily gulp lots of fuel if you stick your foot in them but it sure is fun.

I don't know a thing about the Pentastar but I wouldn't look at anything other than the Hemi were I buying...but that's me.